I can't recall if we've talked about this in Elves of Golarion or somewhere like that, but if I recall correctly, elves mature to "teenage" years slower than humans, but faster than any other time in their lives, then slow down progressively as they grow older, so that they actually spend several decades as "teens". As they grow older, they don't get all wrinkly; they just grow more thin and fragile looking.

Elves raised in human societies are known as the Forlorn, because it really depresses you to watch your childhood friends grow old and die of old age before you even hit puberty.

As for the physical maturity, I don't care how long lived elves are, if it takes longer then 40 years for them to be of breeding age then they are a doomed species.

That's an interesting idea. Not my concept but a neat one anyway.

To go a step farther with that:
Elves reach physical maturity slower than humans, reaching puberty about 20 and being sufficiently adult for healthy breeding around 30.
Since this is slower than other humanoid species and thus a significant handicap, elves are strongly encouraged to have and raise children before starting their regular careers. Since this is an important contribution to elven society, they are supported by the rest of the community during this stage. Only when their children are old enough to be on their own and begin breeding do they begin training for what they'll do with the rest of their long lives.

Elven PCs are likely to have several adult children before starting to adventure.

There was a variant of age rules in regards to how quickly elves mature. I think it was in masters of the wild. Put the starting age earlier by a number of decades. I thought about it for a bit. Only to be interrupted by the owner of the book tearing out the relevant pages.

As for the physical maturity, I don't care how long lived elves are, if it takes longer then 40 years for them to be of breeding age then they are a doomed species.

That would be an excellent reason for elves to be reluctant to go to war, wouldn't it?

Besides, D&D doesn't reflect generational ecology effectively in any way. Orcs, Kobolds, Goblins, and other beginner fodder creatures would long since have been driven extinct in any long-standing setting.

As for the physical maturity, I don't care how long lived elves are, if it takes longer then 40 years for them to be of breeding age then they are a doomed species.

That would be an excellent reason for elves to be reluctant to go to war, wouldn't it?

Besides, D&D doesn't reflect generational ecology effectively in any way. Orcs, Kobolds, Goblins, and other beginner fodder creatures would long since have been driven extinct in any long-standing setting.

Pretty sure all of those breed so fast that rabbits look at them and go "Woah. Dude. Slow down, 'kay?"

An elf raised by human could possibly start adventuring before 100. But, he should also lose the elf weapon proficiencies. Thats something that is learned, not innate. If he isn't raised the elven way, he shouldn't learn the elven stuff.

Similarly, a dwarf raised among humans shouldn't gain the Hatred, Defensive Training, and Weapon Familiarity abilities, as they are learned as well.

Alternate racial abilities are a good way to handle this. Swap out Weapon Familiarity for Arcane Focus (town wizard took a shine to the kid), Fleet-Footed (if you don't mind losing Keen Senses as well) or Spirit of the Waters (if the human town was appropriately located).

This topic looks like it may have quite an impact on my Elf Wizard. His background (mostly to easily introduce him in the middle of ad adventure in Council of Thieves) is that he was captured and enslaved by Cheliax nobility when he was young, and after years of abuse he was sold and trained as a wizard's apprentice, and became a promising Conjurer. (Then he wanted out, snuck around a mansion he was visiting, ran into the PCs and decided to join them and escape.)

But how does that work for an elf? If it takes 80 years to go from child to adult, no Cheliax nobleman is going to wait for that. Should he have been (almost) adult when he was abducted? I do like the idea of him having a very twisted idea of what elven culture and values are like.

On kids: Charisma is not a measure of cuteness, it's confidence, persuasiveness, empathy. Nothing kids are any good at. Cuteness is entirely in the eye of the beholder. Sure, you can give them circumstance bonuses in specific situations (kids can make very effective beggars, for example), but it's not something innate. I'd rather give them a penalty to Charisma.

Consider making him a Hafling Wizard instead. That would SO work out with a Chelaxian background.

This topic looks like it may have quite an impact on my Elf Wizard. His background (mostly to easily introduce him in the middle of ad adventure in Council of Thieves) is that he was captured and enslaved by Cheliax nobility when he was young, and after years of abuse he was sold and trained as a wizard's apprentice, and became a promising Conjurer. (Then he wanted out, snuck around a mansion he was visiting, ran into the PCs and decided to join them and escape.)

But how does that work for an elf? If it takes 80 years to go from child to adult, no Cheliax nobleman is going to wait for that. Should he have been (almost) adult when he was abducted? I do like the idea of him having a very twisted idea of what elven culture and values are like.

Consider making him a Hafling Wizard instead. That would SO work out with a Chelaxian background.

Why halflings? I admit I don't know all that much about Cheliax. Or Golarion elves, for that matter.

Anyway, the character is already an elf and has already played, so I'm not going to change that. But fiddling with background details like age, at what age he was captured, and how much time he spent as slave, apprentice or wizard, is perfectly fine.

What about if elfs mature only a little bit slower than humans but their society and culture is so complex that it takes 100 year to be considered adult by their standards? This will also explain why humans are sometimes seen as uneducated when they encounter an elf village.

So if he get raised by humans it will take a couple of years (maybe around 5 or ten more but not 100) above the average human to be considered an adult by a human society but he will still be a child by elf standards and will lack any elf proficiency.

This is basically how it is handled in a custom setting my group sometimes uses. Elves only take about another 3-4 years above humans to mature physically, and can mature mentally about as fast as a human (if not faster, under appropriate pressures), BUT they still won't be considered an adult by elven standards.

To facilitate showing the above effect, we have separate adulthood entries for physical and cultural maturity. For most races these numbers aren't too far apart, and all the races we've bothered converting over have physical adulthood numbers between about 13 and 20. Elves are bit of an outlier with a cultural adulthood of 110.

Let's say an elven couple lives in a human settlement and has a son, but when the boy is still little they both die due to a tragic accident.

Since no one knew any elven relatives of the parents, nor where they came from, or any other elves, the son is now raised by one of the humans in town.

It just seems odd to me that that elf would actually be the standard elf age when he starts a career in one of the PC classes, instead of starting it when he's in his 20s or 30s.

I get that "real elves" would probably laugh at him and view him as a child still, but when he waits till he's 120 years old, that would mean he probably saw the children of his 'siblings' die already and even their grandchildren have grandchildren by now.

Or do elves actually mature that much slower, either physically or mentally, that a 60 year old elf isn't any bigger, stronger or smarter than a 8 year old human?

Disclaimer: Forgive me, but I'm purposefully skipping all the replies to directly comment on the OP — I'm short on time. Also, I won't comment on what's cannon in Golarion because I have my own homebrew campaign setting...

In my world, elves mature physically at a slightly slower rate than half-elves, who in turn mature slightly slower than humans. (i.e. 18 yo human = ~22 yo half elf = ~26 yo elf). What IS different however are the ages of majority. In the elven culture on Elsemar, an elf's centennial birthday is seen as them reaching the age of majority — this has a very similar cultural significance as a human hitting their 21st birthday in United States culture. While they would have been allowed to drink wine or practice swordplay and spellcraft for many decades by this point, they may now get married, hold public office, assume control over any inheritance, etc.

Half-Elves:

For half-elves, in my world's elven society, it is somewhat more complicated. How they are treated depends chiefly on the social status of their parents, and if the child was accepted or born out of wedlock. Unlike human women, the elves in Elsemar have greater control over and longer gaps between their fertile periods. As such, most half-elves are born to human women from romantic trysts with elves who have left home before they reached their centennial birthday. This has had a profound influence on how the setting has developed, but it's probably a bit off-topic and I don't care to get into it in someone else's thread.

With all that said...

Quatar wrote:

Would an elf raised by humans be 100+ years when he starts adventuring?

Based upon my own conception of elves, I would say that an elf raised in the company of humans would assume the role of an adult sometime in their mid 20s. By that point, any human foster siblings that they grew up with would have already started getting married, and their parents would be getting up in years. It would be to the point where the elf recognized that they too need to start sharing equally in the duties of an adult.

That might mean they take a job or seek a human spouse. It might also mean that the differences between themselves and humans is starting to become obvious enough that they desire to learn more about their own people and set out into the world as an adventurer. It might even be a combination of both — the love between Deedlit and Parn would work just as well for an elf raised among humans as it does for a young elf becoming infatuated with a human and sneaking away from their people.

Naturally, if the physiology of elves in your setting is different, then you need to realistically work out all the implications of that. Elves who take 100 years just to reach physical maturity might be more like capricious fey when they are little — long-lived and lots of experience, but still emotionally and physically immature.

Only the person calling the shots on your setting can say which it is for the elves in your world, but I thought you might at least appreciate this as one of many possibilities.

An elf raised by human could possibly start adventuring before 100. But, he should also lose the elf weapon proficiencies. Thats something that is learned, not innate. If he isn't raised the elven way, he shouldn't learn the elven stuff.

Similarly, a dwarf raised among humans shouldn't gain the Hatred, Defensive Training, and Weapon Familiarity abilities, as they are learned as well.

This topic looks like it may have quite an impact on my Elf Wizard. His background (mostly to easily introduce him in the middle of ad adventure in Council of Thieves) is that he was captured and enslaved by Cheliax nobility when he was young, and after years of abuse he was sold and trained as a wizard's apprentice, and became a promising Conjurer. (Then he wanted out, snuck around a mansion he was visiting, ran into the PCs and decided to join them and escape.)

But how does that work for an elf? If it takes 80 years to go from child to adult, no Cheliax nobleman is going to wait for that. Should he have been (almost) adult when he was abducted? I do like the idea of him having a very twisted idea of what elven culture and values are like.

Well don't make him an adult. Also who says the Chelaxians knew about these details. He was still a child when abducted is now really a angsty devil-conjuring teenage adolescent elf. I like it. Tell us more about your character! Is he a plain vanilla conjurer or an infernal binder ? (Yay for imp familiar!)

I'd give him one of the following alternate racial traits: Arcane Focus (replaces weapon familiarity) or Fleet-Footed (replaces keen senses and weapon familiarity.) (Either he is a natural arcane talent or he is rash)

Also choose the following traits: Forlorn (jaded by the treatment amon humans), Adopted and as a third trait (from adopted) pick either Carefully Hidden (if he practiced not being noticed as an outsider), Fanatic (he hid in the library), Infernal Influence(this is not genetic but due to the mistreatment under the chelaxians), or my favourite Masterful Demeanor(he adopted the feeling of superiority from Cheliaxans). Or did you already choose the CoT campaign trait diabolist raised ?

Why halflings? I admit I don't know all that much about Cheliax. Or Golarion elves, for that matter.

Anyway, the character is already an elf and has already played, so I'm not going to change that. But fiddling with background details like age, at what age he was captured, and how much time he spent as slave, apprentice or wizard, is perfectly fine.

Halflings are a slave/servant caste in Cheliax, and have a secret underground freedom movement there.

I personally like to think elves develop biologically and psychologically at a different rate to humans. Not that there's any specific rules justifications for it, but in my settings elf gestation takes a full calendar year, and physical maturation takes around thirty. Psychological development is much slower, such that it's rare for them to overcome the impulsive and careless behaviours one would associate with human teens before the age of eighty. I think it makes sense to me that a mind that can last multiple centuries probably develops at a slower pace.

You would think that at 15 he would be out of diapers already. Now potty training for the next 6 or seven years...

Dear OP, There is way more discussion about this than there should be.
The answer is NO. Flat out, plain and simple, absolutely not.
When an elf reaches 100- he would be in the care of the humans' grandchildren at that point. This would be infeasible.

Elves reach physical maturity at around 20-30 but- in the care of elves they take longer to reach mental maturity because they are not presented with as much hardship as humans. Since elves are nearly immortal- Elven parents can take much longer to shelter their young. Elven communities are very safe (compared to humans) and they spend far more time exploring the wonders of life. (picking berries, making kites, etc...)

Elves raised by humans have much harsher lives and its sort of like a child who grows up in poverty and has an abusive childhood...The kids that have to raise their younger siblings at age 10(because their parents cant or dont) will mature at an accelerated rate out of necessity.
Therefore, an elf raised by humans will know how to take care of himself as much as any teenager does. He/she will be able to feed and clothe themselves, they will have whatever skill set they were trained with such as farming or hunting or whatever commoners do. The elf would take care of their parents when they are old and have a job of some kind when the parents are unable to work. When the parents die, the elf will likely be 40 or 50, at which point they join the town guard or the kings army where they learn to fight. Then the level 1 PC pick up their story when the elf reaches 80 or 90 and leaves the kingdom to find their homeland and learn about his kin.

I personally like to think elves develop biologically and psychologically at a different rate to humans. Not that there's any specific rules justifications for it, but in my settings elf gestation takes a full calendar year, and physical maturation takes around thirty. Psychological development is much slower, such that it's rare for them to overcome the impulsive and careless behaviours one would associate with human teens before the age of eighty. I think it makes sense to me that a mind that can last multiple centuries probably develops at a slower pace.

You would think that at 15 he would be out of diapers already. Now potty training for the next 6 or seven years...

Yeah, seems ridiculous doesn't it.

Then consider the development of humans from the point of view of most animals:
Human, your cub is a year old and it's barely able to crawl. My pups are ready to hunt on their own.
Or herd animals who can run with the herd within hours of birth.

Creatures develop at different rates. Why shouldn't elves, with an absurdly long lifespan, have long development times?

Dear OP, There is way more discussion about this than there should be.

The answer is NO. Flat out, plain and simple, absolutely not.
When an elf reaches 100- he would be in the care of the humans' grandchildren at that point. This would be infeasible.

Elves reach physical maturity at around 20-30 but- in the care of elves they take longer to reach mental maturity because they are not presented with as much hardship as humans. Since elves are nearly immortal- Elven parents can take much longer to shelter their young. Elven communities are very safe (compared to humans) and they spend far more time exploring the wonders of life. (picking berries, making kites, etc...)

Elves raised by humans have much harsher lives and its sort of like a child who grows up in poverty and has an abusive childhood...The kids that have to raise their younger siblings at age 10(because their parents cant or dont) will mature at an accelerated rate out of necessity.
Therefore, an elf raised by humans will know how to take care of himself as much as any teenager does. He/she will be able to feed and clothe themselves, they will have whatever skill set they were trained with such as farming or hunting or whatever commoners do. The elf would take care of their parents when they are old and have a job of some kind when the parents are unable to work. When the parents die, the elf will likely be 40 or 50, at which point they join the town guard or the kings army where they learn to fight. Then the level 1 PC pick up their story when the elf reaches 80 or 90 and leaves the kingdom to find their homeland and learn about his kin.

NO, WE ARE NOT SPENDING 20 YEARS IN DIAPERS. THAT'S JUST RETARDED.

As I've said before, that's a perfectly good house rule. At least the starting game at 80 or 90 part, since that's decades below the RAW elven starting age.

I don't think the idea that elves grow physically and mentally as fast (or nearly as fast) as humans, but aren't considered culturally adult until 110+ is in the rules. Given the little information we have, it seems to me that 110 is the equivalent of 15 in human years and it's a reasonable assumption that development is roughly proportional.

If you don't want to run it that way, that's fine of course. Make whatever changes you want.

This topic looks like it may have quite an impact on my Elf Wizard. His background (mostly to easily introduce him in the middle of ad adventure in Council of Thieves) is that he was captured and enslaved by Cheliax nobility when he was young, and after years of abuse he was sold and trained as a wizard's apprentice, and became a promising Conjurer. (Then he wanted out, snuck around a mansion he was visiting, ran into the PCs and decided to join them and escape.)

But how does that work for an elf? If it takes 80 years to go from child to adult, no Cheliax nobleman is going to wait for that. Should he have been (almost) adult when he was abducted? I do like the idea of him having a very twisted idea of what elven culture and values are like.

Well don't make him an adult. Also who says the Chelaxians knew about these details. He was still a child when abducted is now really a angsty devil-conjuring teenage adolescent elf. I like it.

That's an interesting idea. I assumed that as an experienced conjurer, he had to be adult, but for an elf in human captivity, I guess he could be younger. A teenage devil-summoner, a scary thought.

Teleportation subschool. I'd considered Infernal binder, but I don't think it was in a book that I was allowed to use (the GM only has Core, APG and UM, and wants to stick with what he has). I will still go for an Imp familiar, but I'll just pay a feat for it.

I admit I also wasn't entirely sure what I'd do with an infernal binder. It sounded a bit too specific to me. Teleportation is something I understand, and I liked the ability to quickly get out of trouble. Although I do really envision him as a devil summoner. There's not as lot of devils in lower level summon monster spells, but I've already summoned a Lemure to suck up some damage.

He's definitely intended as a character of questionable ethics. He's not evil, but he has no problem using evil methods. He hates the ruling class for their decadence and the impractical way in which they mismanage Cheliax. And he feels that as an elf, he should be superior to them. He doesn't really have any plans beyond hurting or harming them and their plans in any way possible. (Mostly because that makes him a flexible addition to a group of rebels fighting the evil empire.) I like to describe his alignment as Lawful-Chaotic Evil-Good.

I suppose teenager would work.

Thanael wrote:

I'd give him one of the following alternate racial traits: Arcane Focus (replaces weapon familiarity) or Fleet-Footed (replaces keen senses and weapon familiarity.) (Either he is a natural arcane talent or he is rash)

Makes sense, but again, not the correct books, I think. I'd definitely have gone for Arcane Focus otherwise.

Thanael wrote:

Also choose the following traits: Forlorn (jaded by the treatment amon humans), Adopted and as a third trait (from adopted) pick either...

All very appropriate, but I went with Reactionary in the end. He was bullied (or beaten, in my case) as a kid, and has +2 initiative as a result.

I also got the campaign trait Diabolist Raised, of course. Not the most useful bonus to me, but it fit just a bit too well to ignore.

Really that entire comic's premise is, "who wants to-", er, I mean, "it sucks to live too long, especially when you have interactions with 'mortal' races".

EDIT: [ooc]also worth noting that Meiji - debatably the 'protagonist' of the comic - is roughly equivalent to thirteen to fourteen during the entire course of the events (even several years later), but has been pushed through the wizard school program and been forced to become an extremely potent mage, despite her mental, physical, and emotional immaturity. This is a source of consternation and frustration throughout the story, as she's really desperately trying to be an 'adult', but is, ultimately, a young girl having adult things foisted upon her when she's way too young for it, which has, by proxy, severely messed her up. That comic is actually a pretty interesting way to model what a adventuring parties would look like and be and do in a fantasy world, presupposing their eclectic skills are at least somewhat rare.[ooc]

Also, one other option is to basically consider elven children with rather extreme forms of ADD, being learning-prohibitive until mental maturity. It would make for an extremely taxing rearing process as humans would tend to say, "How many times have I told you...?" and the elves genuinely wouldn't know because they physically and mentally can't pay attention long enough for the sentence to finish, much less for the lesson to sink in.

And it's because they're immature.

So that's not really changing the dynamic of this thread, at all, but it's another way of looking at it.

As for the elf thing, I have them age twice as long as a human til about age 15 or so (elf age ~30). Then, I use BIG LEAGUE mental/emotional immaturity for the next 40 years or so.

Actually, I am doing something similar for a sylph character of mine.

Buddy of mine thinks that is ridiculous and the age tables only reflect elven society. He thinks an elf in a human environment ages same rate as other humans, but will be years and years before being accepted as a member of elf society.

Had to toss in something dealing with the topic. That webcomic is great!

Azaelas, at least it's already finished, so you'll never have to 'wait' to get to the next chapter! Literally, it's a complete work, so you can start at the beginning and get to the end (although the author is currently republishing pages with new commentary).

Azaelas, at least it's already finished, so you'll never have to 'wait' to get to the next chapter! Literally, it's a complete work, so you can start at the beginning and get to the end (although the author is currently republishing pages with new commentary).

Yeah I noticed that. But I still have around 15 other already finished webcomics to read. One of which has archives from January 1, 2000 and updated 7 days a week with no missed updates all the way to January 1, 2012.

An Elf in such situations would be undersocialised and maladjusted when viewed by Elves raised in "normal" circumstances... because she would be.

Some of the most poignant moments in Doctor Who are when the character is brought face to face with the fact that his Human friends don't live as long as he does. A classic moment when the 11th Doctor having gone 200 years without a Companion, makes a phone call to his old friend Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, only to find out that he had died two years previously having always set a glass waiting for him. Since he knows that he never came during that period, he can't change the fact that he never dropped by to see him.

Actually while all of this discussion is interesting when it comes down to answering the original question...

If the OP was intending to ask this as a rules based question..

The Answer is Yes. The starting character ages by class are independent of your individual background. There are no rules modifications for special, weird, or perverse circumstances, unless your GM invokes Rule Zero.

This is one of the cases where I think the young creature simple template doesn't accurately depict a young creature. There should also be a -2 to Int and Wis, with a +2 to Dex, and maybe a +2 to Cha. After all, most children are nimble, most cute, and the vast majority lack learning and understanding.

Just my 2 coppers.

Kids might be cute but most of them are real jerks, too. So I would rather give them a penalty on charisma not a bonus. Perhaps an additional ability to give them a bonus on cha checks vs their parents.

Agreed. When i need actual stats fr a child character i usually go with the young creature template and add -1 to WIS, INT and CHA (basically inverse aging effects on the mental stats).

Just because children are cute, they aren't any more sociable or have any more force of personality, rather less.

I have gone with the Elves mature at slightly slower rates than humans and pretty much the same rates as Dwarves and Halflings for years.

So basically they hit puberty around 18-20 and are considered "adults" at 30 or so. 31-100 is roughly equivalent to the 20s for Elves. 101-250 are basically the equivalent of the 30s and 40s. Very few Elves continue to adventure past this point as their is intense societal pressure to become parents and use your time to prepare the next generation for their responsibilities.

Few Elves are going to spend the entire period of 31-250 as adventurers as it's generally expected that elves will have periods of wanderlust interspersed with long period practicing a trade or profession or engaged in study. In most cases I have older NPC elves with numerous ranks of various professions/crafts/knowledges that represent their time spent in service to their communities as simple craftsmen. Periods of intense meditation about various aspects of life also occur throughout their life where they might function as an ascetic contemplating various arcane branches of elven philosophy for years on end.

Trips to the hidden domains of elves are always strange for outsiders as it's rare for anyone other than rare paragons to engage exclusively in a single field of study for their entire life (such as perfecting the warrior's craft or mastering magic) and those that do are often seen as a bit fae even by their own kind. It can also be surprising when outsiders encounter a seemingly simple craftsman that also has numerous levels in a class completely unrelated to their current profession.

Some elves leave their societies as early as 30 but most don't truly become "adventurers" until sometime after their 50th birthday. Many older elves will be indulgent of elves younger than 50 but tend to be somewhat dismissive of those that haven't lived that much. This tends to extend to their relationships with other races as all but the most elder humans simply aren't seen as mature enough in the ways of the world.

This is one of the cases where I think the young creature simple template doesn't accurately depict a young creature. There should also be a -2 to Int and Wis, with a +2 to Dex, and maybe a +2 to Cha. After all, most children are nimble, most cute, and the vast majority lack learning and understanding.

Just my 2 coppers.

Kids might be cute but most of them are real jerks, too. So I would rather give them a penalty on charisma not a bonus. Perhaps an additional ability to give them a bonus on cha checks vs their parents.

Yeah, the +2 Cha work for both the cute kids, and the overconfident jerk kids. ;)

okay let's look at it as if it were a human. Would you expect a 10 year old to start a PC career?

Sure. PCs are usually the exception, not the norm.

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I know lots of people gripe and complain that it doesn't make any sense.

But let's look at the real world for examples. Nearly all wild animals mature to breeding ability in one to two years. It takes humans about ten years or more.

Most animals are walking and running within minutes, days, or weeks of being born. It takes humans two years or more.

Its mostly so our brains can develop at a similar rate to our bodies. Elves are more Intelligent than humans, sure, but they're none seven times as intelligent as humans, so why should they take seven times as long to physically and mentally mature?

Quote:

A 100 year old elf is about the same maturity level as a 20 year old human. Who raises him does not matter and can not change the rate at which his body matures. Try as you might you can't force someone's body to grow up faster.

Here's my gripe with this entire scenario; the age of adulthood in humans has hardly been stable in the 2,000+ years we've inhabited this planet. As little as 2,000 years ago, as soon as you were old enough to have children of your own, you were an adult, and this is probably still true today in some cultures across the world. Many modern civilizations put much more stock in mental maturity, however. Even then, the United States lists age 18 as its age of adulthood, but some freedoms are still restricted beyond this number and scientifically speaking, most people are not developmentally mature until 25 years of age, so it comes off as more of a "What point is enough enough" for a society rather than any true scientific reason.

From an evolutionary standpoint, it doesn't make much sense to be an infant for 20 years or a weak, defenseless child for 30 more. The possibility that an elf's entire body simply matures slowly does make sense, but it also screams of impracticality, especially considering that most stories have elves that are descended from fey or live their lives very close to the natural world; nature strives for efficiency.

I can accept the argument that a few more years need to be tacked on here and there in order for the elf to reach maturity; in my home campaign, an elf is the physical equivalent of an 18-year-old human at age 25. However, the idea that it takes them 110 years to do what a human does in 15 is incredibly stupid to me. It takes the mysticism of the elven lifespan and makes it look downright silly. In my game, the 110 year-old adult is a societal construct made in part because elves do mentally mature slower than humans and also in part because when you live to be 500+ years, your idea of what "seasonably wizened" is is skewed a bit.

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This DOES present an interesting problem though. Since it takes the elf 100 years to actually physically mature, and he is being raised by humans, we must consider his foster parents. So during his young formative years, his foster parents die, his foster siblings die, and finally his foster nephews and nieces finish raising him. So yeah, he'd be messed up most likely.

In Golarion, the situation you describe is almost word for word the background of the forlorn elves. Of which the Iconic Rogue is one.

Would any human family raise a child that long....wouldn't that just get tired of it and toss the 25 year old toddler out the door?

And I still want to know why Dhampir have the same starting age as elves...who is going to take care of such a cursed child except for maybe the mother or aunt...but family born after that has no emotional attachment to the parent...unlikely.

I know lots of people gripe and complain that it doesn't make any sense.

But let's look at the real world for examples. Nearly all wild animals mature to breeding ability in one to two years. It takes humans about ten years or more.

Most animals are walking and running within minutes, days, or weeks of being born. It takes humans two years or more.

Its mostly so our brains can develop at a similar rate to our bodies. Elves are more Intelligent than humans, sure, but they're none seven times as intelligent as humans, so why should they take seven times as long to physically and mentally mature?

Quote:

A 100 year old elf is about the same maturity level as a 20 year old human. Who raises him does not matter and can not change the rate at which his body matures. Try as you might you can't force someone's body to grow up faster.

Here's my gripe with this entire scenario; the age of adulthood in humans has hardly been stable in the 2,000+ years we've inhabited this planet. As little as 2,000 years ago, as soon as you were old enough to have children of your own, you were an adult, and this is probably still true today in some cultures across the world. Many modern civilizations put much more stock in mental maturity, however. Even then, the United States lists age 18 as its age of adulthood, but some freedoms are still restricted beyond this number and scientifically speaking, most people are not developmentally mature until 25 years of age, so it comes off as more of a "What point is enough enough" for a society rather than any true scientific reason.

From an evolutionary standpoint, it doesn't make much sense to be an infant for 20 years or a weak, defenseless child for 30 more. The possibility that an elf's entire body simply matures slowly does make sense, but it also screams of impracticality, especially considering that most stories have elves that are descended from fey or live their lives very close to the natural world; nature strives for efficiency.

I can accept the argument that a few more years need to be tacked on here and there in order for the elf to reach maturity; in my home campaign, an elf is the physical equivalent of an 18-year-old human at age 25. However, the idea that it takes them 110 years to do what a human does in 15 is incredibly stupid to me. It takes the mysticism of the elven lifespan and makes it look downright silly. In my game, the 110 year-old adult is a societal construct made in part because elves do mentally mature slower than humans and also in part because when you live to be 500+ years, your idea of what "seasonably wizened" is is skewed a bit.

Of course, you can make an equally good evolutionary argument against the ridiculously long lifespan. In the name of efficiency, you live long enough to breed, raise their children and maybe help out with the grandchildren. It makes no sense to reach sexual maturity by ~25, raise your kids to adulthood by 60 and just barely be starting your life.

You have to think in medieval times a 19 year old like me would be married, have children, and running my own business.

It wouldn't be inconceivable for a Human of 10 winters to be forced into an adventure. Especially, if they are say an Oracle or Sorcerer.

It's not inconceivable to have a game with child adventurers, but it also isn't standard. It's a sub-genre essentially. Rogues would be the other obvious example. The fantasy (and historical) genre is full of examples of orphaned street urchins stumbling into adventure, either as protagonists or sidekicks.

That said, the difference between modern and medieval concepts of adulthood is, at least partly, handled in that age table. A 110+ elf is considered an adult, but that's the equivalent of a 15+ year old human, not 18+ or 21+.

Have you ever listened and gone along with an overconfident jerk? Did you feel their jerk natures winning you over? Or was it their naive bluster and reckless, unfounded confidence? Did the words from such a person caress you into agreement?

You have to think in medieval times a 19 year old like me would be married, have children, and running my own business.

It wouldn't be inconceivable for a Human of 10 winters to be forced into an adventure. Especially, if they are say an Oracle or Sorcerer.

It's not inconceivable to have a game with child adventurers, but it also isn't standard. It's a sub-genre essentially. Rogues would be the other obvious example. The fantasy (and historical) genre is full of examples of orphaned street urchins stumbling into adventure, either as protagonists or sidekicks.

That said, the difference between modern and medieval concepts of adulthood is, at least partly, handled in that age table. A 110+ elf is considered an adult, but that's the equivalent of a 15+ year old human, not 18+ or 21+.

Yep. Which is why the pre-110+starting char years for elves troubles me a bit. They are not 15 at 30 or 50, they are close to 15 at 110 with all that this entails.

Would any human family raise a child that long....wouldn't that just get tired of it and toss the 25 year old toddler out the door?

And I still want to know why Dhampir have the same starting age as elves...who is going to take care of such a cursed child except for maybe the mother or aunt...but family born after that has no emotional attachment to the parent...unlikely.

100 years as a baby, then child half vampire is a long stretch. Lot of encounters and problems could develop over that time.

"So for the first thirty my mother took care of me, then she died, then I was a street urchin for sixty, I still remember the festivals for the coronation of the last two kings, then I was in the thieves guild for twenty, yeah, times were tough through those two sieges, and now I am ready to start out as a rogue!

Here's my gripe with this entire scenario; the age of adulthood in humans has hardly been stable in the 2,000+ years we've inhabited this planet. As little as 2,000 years ago, as soon as you were old enough to have children of your own, you were an adult, and this is probably still true today in some cultures across the world. Many modern civilizations put much more stock in mental maturity, however. Even then, the United States lists age 18 as its age of adulthood, but some freedoms are still restricted beyond this number and scientifically speaking, most people are not developmentally mature until 25 years of age, so it comes off as more of a "What point is enough enough" for a society rather than any true scientific reason.

Here's my fault with your reasoning. During most of those 2,000 years, the average Human was well into the decrepitude of old age by the time they entered their 30's. The rushed adulthood of earlier times was part of the generally miserable and brutish lifestyle of stunted development most commoners endured during most of that millennia of history. (Those who were raised in noble and more well to do lifestyles had longer lifespans and maturation periods, which produced more mentally abled individuals as well.) That quick rush to adulthood comes at a price.

Here's my gripe with this entire scenario; the age of adulthood in humans has hardly been stable in the 2,000+ years we've inhabited this planet. As little as 2,000 years ago, as soon as you were old enough to have children of your own, you were an adult, and this is probably still true today in some cultures across the world. Many modern civilizations put much more stock in mental maturity, however. Even then, the United States lists age 18 as its age of adulthood, but some freedoms are still restricted beyond this number and scientifically speaking, most people are not developmentally mature until 25 years of age, so it comes off as more of a "What point is enough enough" for a society rather than any true scientific reason.

Here's my fault with your reasoning. During most of those 2,000 years, the average Human was well into the decrepitude of old age by the time they entered their 30's. The rushed adulthood of earlier times was part of the generally miserable and brutish lifestyle of stunted development most commoners endured during most of that millennia of history. (Those who were raised in noble and more well to do lifestyles had longer lifespans and maturation periods, which produced more mentally abled individuals as well.) That quick rush to adulthood comes at a price.

Not really. Average lifespans might have been in the 30s, but that's largely due to early childhood mortality. If you reached adulthood, your expected lifespan was fairly long. If you reached your 30s, you were certainly not decrepit, though you might have injuries or diseases that we could treat today.

And those raised in noble/well off circumstances did live longer, but they came to adulthood as quickly. Noble children, particularly daughters, were often married young. This probably contributed to childbirth deaths. They also took on responsibilities at what we would consider a young age.

Interesting point. If a child in feudalism knows nothing but farmwork, they will be good at farmwork but will be a specialist that potentially doesn't know what specialisation means. That daily grind may also break them or kill them via accidents or malnutrition before they are 30.

Another point that is relevant to elven children becoming adventurers prior to actual adulthood. You can take a child and teach them a martial art from an early age, truly start them young. If they focus and have a great teacher they can seem truly adept, perform the moves without thinking, look great. However, learning to take hits and keep going takes time and conditioning. So these little martial artists can still break down and cry when hurt because they are still children. Hardness, grit, hp in effect, it takes time.

And those raised in noble/well off circumstances did live longer, but they came to adulthood as quickly. Noble children, particularly daughters, were often married young. This probably contributed to childbirth deaths. They also took on responsibilities at what we would consider a young age.

The children who were raised in nobility were given years of education and training that other children would never receive. For males there would be extra training in matters of war and leadership. For females the training would cover areas of household management. With noble men being called off to war, someone had to see to the running of the estates.

The relative poverty of my family lifestyle was most likely the main reason I started my baby sitting career at the age of 5.